Tag: Diet

Good Morning World and thanks for tuning in to the penultimate post day here on Planet Magnet. After this post there will be only one more and that won’t be for a couple of weeks as I tell the story of my walk along Britain’s oldest Road.

That means this is post number 499!

Quite an incredible feat but one that I suppose I am quite proud to have achieved.

I have always said that I would share my life with you guys for the next 499 posts, after which I would walk the Ridgeway for the Charity HENRY and make my 500th and final post about that very walk.

It is hard to consider the person I was when I started out on the journey. Some people don’t even recognise me as I have changed so much physically, others don’t recognise me because I have changed so much mentally.

Regardless of which is more significant I think we must all agree that since my surgery and subsequent life change, this person…

With My Mum!

Is no longer anything like this person….

If we consider way back when I started this little blog after advice to do so, I was incredibly unfit, unhappy, lonely, I was letting life pass me by and I was disengaged.

No more though.

What a difference 18mths and the help and support of medical professionals and all of you guys here on Word Press who come to read my words every day. Some of you read quietly and fly under the radar and some of you read and comment and encourage. Regardless of which camp you fall into, I appreciate you all so very very much and I thank you all very much from the bottom of my heart.

You guys have made the incredible challenge of 499 posts a possibility and I am so happy that I have completed what I set out to do I think all I need do now is wish myself Bon Voyage, Bon Chance and Bon Temps for the next week of walking. You will be able to follow my updates on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram…..

So until I write and publish the story of my walk, I shall leave you with these words from T.S Elliots Little Gidding (pointed TO me by Osyth from Half Baked in Paradise but here mixed up by ME) and hopefully they will sum up all I have been trying to say…

“To make an end is to make a beginning so always remember last years thoughts belong to last years language whereas next years words await another voice”

So ’till the last time,

Stay out of the fridge.

P.S. Don’t forget to follow this link and donate to my just giving page.

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Good Morning world and thanks for tuning in to another day here on Planet Magnet. I trust today’s hump day see’s you as excited and apprehensive as it does me 🙂

I am these things because I have fast approaching, one of the biggest challenges ever set to me in my entire life and I hope that you guys are well and truly behind me and are no longer putting off any sponsorship or donations and are quite happy helping out in whatever way you can.

Don’t forget to follow this link and donate to my just giving page. You will be pleased to note that I have reduced the target down to £2500 as the entire walk has been scaled back to what I had originally started off with, just me and Archie and a very long walk…..! Yes there will be parts that I hope to speak to the media and yes there will be parts that I hope to walk with others but I think in all reality it it has now dawned on me that I am not the most important person on the planet (I know, hard to believe right?) and that I am trying to raise this money off of my own back so certain adjustments were felt necessary in order to feel more comfortable with my efforts I have also decided to travel each day so I shall be taken to my route in the morning and collected in the evening. The next morning I shall be taken back to the previous evenings collection point so NO shortcuts will be taken AT ALL!!!

Anyway, a short update for you there….

Back to me and the final instalment of my story.

Last time I left you with the words Breakdown at Land Rover. This was in April 2008 and I don’t mean a mechanical vehicle breakdown, I mean my own mental health deterioration.

Not the happiest time of my life for sure.

I know I have talked about bullying at work before so I shall not go into that now but suffice to say that at this point there was some of that and what made it so amazing is that usually I would never have stood for it and would have stood my ground and dealt with it.

This time I didn’t.

I crawled into my shell and became a hermit.

Unable to leave it because of anxiety and panic attacks.

And as I ignored my friends, food became my friend.

Not good food though.

Takeaway Indians, Chinese, Pizza, Fizzy Drinks etc etc.

Not a good part of my story for sure.

But it still happened.

During this time I had several small business’s of my own, including iPhone and iPod repair, Home Audio Visual Installation and a very lightweight version of my new Handy Man business.

This was all up until I broke my leg.

And that brings us to the start of my blog so if you are really interested in learning my then simply go to the home page and you will get my entire story there, celebrity and all…. 😉

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Good Morning world and thanks for tuning in to another day here on Planet Magnet.

It’s weird to think that this is one of the last times I shall ever write these words….

What way do I go next?

What direction does life hold for me?

I would like to say that everything will be plain sailing but I doubt very much that it will because lets face it nothing ever is.

However.

Over the past 18months of blogging and self assessment, peeling the layers away one by one, I have learned that I can now cope when things don’t go my way .

I don’t have to eat my own body weight in chocolate buttons or drink my own blood levels in full fat coke or alcohol.

No.

I am able to cope with these things simply because I have been given a tool that allows me to eat less and I have been given a second chance at living an ordinary life where I eat vegetables, prepare EVERY meal from scratch and no longer eat chocolate and sweets or drink alcohol and soda pop in anyway near the amounts that I used to.

Life is really good and that is because I have taken it back.

Everything that I have done, you can do to.

Don’t forget I was a lost and lonely mid forties single man with no prospects ahead of him apart from ending up with Diabetes, Heart Conditions, High Blood Pressure and possibly ending up in a wheelchair. I had nothing to live for apart from existing. I had nothing to hope for, apart from one day I might get that miracle cure for being fat.

And do you know what?

I found that!

Yes! That cure does exist.

That cure is real.

But not in the shape of a pill.

No.

It exists in the shape of commitment, desire, hard work and looking at the long game.

It exists in YOU!

So as I have said so many time before, if I can do it then you can do it too….!

So where do I go to now?

Well I think that after the walk, I take some time to myself to write the final instalment of the blog then I take some more time to get some more inspiration and direction. Take some time for me and getting MY world in order.

Yes, I think that is the direction I shall take.

I have such a lot to look forward to so wish me luck as I wave you goodbye….

‘Till tomorrow,

Stay out of the fridge.

P.S Don’t forget to follow this link and donate to my just giving page…..

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Good Morning world and thanks for tuning in to another day here on Planet Magnet.

Today we start the week with just 6 more posts (including this one) remaining until I leave for my epic walk where I shall record the final chapter of this blog by telling you all about my journey along the Ridgeway.

However, today I shall simply be talking about the blog and how I would never have dreamed I would ever reach the stage that I have today including all other sundry items along the way….

So carry on and watch, see what you can see and let me know what you think in the comments….

‘Till tomorrow,

Stay out of the fridge.

P.S Don’t forget to follow this link and donate to my just giving page…..

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Good Morning world and thanks for tuning in to another day here on Planet Magnet. I hope today finds you suitably relaxed or at least relaxing a little, after all, it is Sunday and we must all be aware that Sunday is the time when we take stock of the week and sit back and congratulate ourselves on jobs well done.

Unless you are me.

No, if you are me, you continue on at breakneck speed and attempt to complete all the things you want to achieve. Because let’s face it, I have had the past several years sitting around doing as little as possible and now that I don’t have to, I really don’t want to….

So anyway, where were we?

Oh yes, I had just got back from America and had already tucked into a Bacon Sandwich, a pint of milk and a bar of Cadburys Chocolate…

Yum….

So now I needed to find myself a job.

Where to start….

I think it was only a matter of a few days and I had gotten work as a food delivery driver around the south coast of England. If I recall correctly the firm was called Glendower Foods and the only good thing about them wast that they were based in a village about 2 miles up the road so I was able to cycle there each day….!

Still, work was work and it gave me time to contemplate my naval as I drove around the streets, delivering posh food whilst thinking about where life would take me next after my long break off of work, travelling the globe…

Eventually I saw an opportunity to get back into sales and became a Sales Rep for a motor parts company, it was terrible pay and a terrible car but it was fun and I was learning a trade. Eventually I was asked to move a little further away from home and run a branch in the city of Reading. Not the most inspiring of places but it was again good experience whilst I searched for something a little more in my line of work.
Eventually that day came and I joined a Plastic Vacuum Forming company and became the most bored I had been in years.

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Good Morning world and thank you as ever for tuning in to the wonderful world of the Planet Magnet!

Today finds me in a simply wonderful mood and extremely happy with all that is going on in my world!

Yes certain things could be better but if we think back to Thursday’s post “It never rains but it’s been biblical” I spent time writing about trying to find the positive in things and not being overwhelmed by all that is happening in our own little worlds on a day to day basis.

For this reason at least I am determined to spend the next two weeks in a state of “uptempo fiasco” 😉

Not really but I think I should size the day and enjoy all that life has to offer me at this moment because people, we only get the one crack at it and I don’t want to end up with my whip only half cracked when it times to shuffle off of this mortal coil – something I do not plan to do for at least another 50 years minimum 😉

So why so happy? Well no particular reason but lets look at things shall we?

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Good Morning world and thanks for tuning in to another day here on Planet Magnet. Today we find ourselves at the much awaited day of Friday.

Yippee! It’s Friday!!!

Okay, Okay, Calm Down Dear….!

Right, so as it’s Friday I suppose we must press on with my Looking Back series where I tell you guys a little about myself and last time I think I left you with the fact I had just fallen asleep after a mammoth 57 hrs of being awake…..

So the next morning, I awoke cold and a little disoriented for sure. I had been expecting to sleep the sleep of the dead but I recall I ended up rising as the others in the house stirred and so was fortunate to witness what was to become a morning ritual.

The removal of the ice from the INSIDE of the patio window. The window of the room I slept in!!

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Good Morning world and thanks for tuning in to another day here on Planet Magnet. I trust this hump day finds you, like me, simply getting on with life and doing your best amidst all of the things that are sent to try us on a daily basis.

One thing I have found since my weight loss journey (I hate that term but it does sum up the past couple of years very well!) began is that everyday we are constantly being tried and tested no matter how lovely our lives may appear to be. People I know whom have (what can only be considered as) everything are having their (very threadbare) patience tried and tested as much as those who consider themselves to have nothing.
Personally, I am tried on a regular basis with food choices and although am on the whole so much better and healthier than I was, I can still make mistakes and eat too many Jaffa Cakes, have too much chocolate or want Fish and Chips over and above all the healthy options that are out there.

I know we all suffer from this kind of problem and so for that reason I let things go. I know I have made a mistake BUT I simply get on with it and know I will do better next time.

But it is not always about food is it? For years I would wallow in my own woe and be depressed about things not going exactly right. I would be annoyed about silly things I thought I could not change such as my football team, my diet, my work ethic, my creativity, my lack of money, my living conditions, the fact my TV wasn’t HD etc etc…